David PownallFRSL (19 May 1938 – 21 November 2022) was a British playwright and prolific radio dramatist performed internationally, and novelist translated into several languages.
Returning to England to write full-time, he became the resident writer of the Century Theatre touring group, from 1970-72. He was resident writer of the
Duke's Playhouse,
Lancaster, from 1972–75, and had several plays produced by them.[citation needed] His plays incorporated reflections on the locality, and meditations on the plays of
Shakespeare.
Pownall helped found the
Paines Plough Theatre, originally based in
Coventry, where he was resident writer from 1975-80.[citation needed] In 1977, his play Richard III, Part Two, first produced by Paines Plough, was taken to the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Being deeply interested in music, he wrote several plays related to the challenges of composers, both in terms of personal creativity, and, in Master Class (1983), working within the oppressive political environment of the
Soviet Union under
Joseph Stalin.
Pownall wrote plays for radio, as well as material for performance by children and college students. The Sutton Elms website lists with dates 75 plays broadcast by BBC radio between 1972 and 2018.[3]
As a novelist, Pownall's early work, such as The Raining Tree War (1974) and its sequel African Horse (1975) were comic novels in the mode of
Evelyn Waugh. Then came historical fantasies such as White Cutter (1988), The Catalogue of Men (1999) and The Ruling Passion (2008).[4]
He died on 22 November 2022, at the age of 84.[2]His wife Alex survives him; They have a son, Max. Pownall also had two sons from previous marriages, Gareth and Tom.[5]